this is the best updates so far. i've not checked in for a while as not much was happoening but wow!

Fantastic work bud, so awesome to see it finally come together!

Thanks guy's, This weekends progress... Decided since the rest of it's bum was sorted I had better put the boot lock in.. Arr send almost complete, Just need to find a new or mint "Commodore" badge for the center garnish to finish it off Actually stopped using it as a storage shed for VL parts and cleaned it out and vacuumed the floor etc.. Being that the carpet is unobtainable in the original "Kangaroo" brown colour, I had to re-use the original carpet, Hung it up on the shed door and gave it a clean, This stuff works wonders with a stiff broom and a Gerni, Came up pretty good considering its 30year age, Has a few imperfections, but what do ya do?? Pulled the original seats out of hibernation, pretty clean considering.. Gave them a quick clean up and came up fairly nice.. Dragged the pinchweld out... Gave it a good cleanup, like new! Fitted the carpet once it dried out and the pinchweld, Pretty happy with the results, makes such a difference to see it in there finally Mint foot rest cover even on!! Shifter Drop box fitted, Had to cut the console clip to clear around the shifter as you do with these Rear scuff plates came up like new and fitted, fronts were a little broken so will find a couple other's in the spares pile and clean them up to fit For the past couple of months I've been looking for seat covers as per the original ones that came with the car (can see them in a pic on page 1) for that old man spec look, Apparently they don't seem be easily available, I accidentally came across this sample panel at Supercheap looking for other bits... and well I'll be fingered, there's the bloody material... So obviously these were not in stock BUT they did get them in for me! Fitted up the rear seat covers and fitted the seats! what a bloody difference that makes! Front seat covers on! They cam with these separate head rest cover's Think I'd prefer them with out so I will leave them off... Even put in the original uncut parcel shelf.. Had to put Nan's Knitted cover on.. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Front seats in!! IT'S A BLOODY CAR! O.O Console is just sitting in as I still need to refit the shifter etc, Have added the Berlina Sunglasses holder as I will put some guages in there, but it looks awesome!! so stoked with how it looks, will hopefully finish off some more interior through the week if I can find time and then make a start on other stuff once I move it to the new house Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Wow just wow You have done an awesome job man!

Not been able to get into this a much as I hoped, final house move etc all happened, God it's good to finally have everything in 1 spot!!! Anyway, before I moved the car home I got the new headlights and indicators in, Only TYC and I didn't bother with the genuine glass thing on them as they still look fine to me, Grill is in also, (late night sh!t phone pics) Looks almost like a car.... On the truck to the new house..finally!!! I bought this plenum top off eBay to use with the stock runners.... I went to a mate to sort a radiator to suit, ended up going with a new VL V8 core, swapped the bottom to opposite side and swapped the filler neck and top hose over, Found a top hose neck to suit the 2JZ hose size with the right angle and put it all together, Brought it home for a test fit... Top spout was a little off so we moved the angle up and then painted it up, Fits in well.... Almost..... The top hose will run very close to the throttlebody, and the angle will be hard to make clearance While it could be made to fit, it would be very tight, and probably rub IF it did even clear, so will need to cut and re angle the throttle body plate on the plenum, Not such a big deal anyway as my T/B doesnt fit that plate anyway. But with having to wait to do anything worked out well as this came up for sale for about $200 more than the fuel rail would have cost me, Although China, and may bite me in the arse, it'll work out for now, came with rail and billet T/B, so will get that on there instead, Will paint it black of some sort to keep with my theme of "all things must be black" Next little job was the belt tensioner, these engines run a serpentine belt through power steer and aircon, I am not running either, so the fix is to change the pulley on the tensioner, I bought a new tensioner, the trick is using a Honda S2000 pulley on the 2jz item... Because they are smaller, the pulley rubs on the ribs of the tensioner so it needs to be shaved down a bit, To stick with my theme..... looks better in black anyway.. At home... [COLOR="Silver"] Bought a new Alternator to suit, but it didnt suit..., it wasn't black... Was'nt... Sh!ts of little things to mask up so the stater doesn't get painted... All painted, looks better in black... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Put back together and mounted, ready to put the belt on.. I bought a VX Brake booster and master upgrade off some guy on eBay, comes with all needed bits, painted the bracket in the only colour I own and put that stuff in.. Also bought these trailing arm plates from eBay, can come dimpled and are a mint fit Painted the trailing arms and under side before welding them on... Found some paint to suit, colour seems right... Had 10 mins spare so I decided to clean up the Venetians and fit them, Bit dusty but cleaned up well Unfortunately the rear ones are not so good, will have to sort them out another day Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Coming along nicely!

Super slow progress due to wayyy to many cars at once going on! I've not even looked at this thing for a while and in fact it's actually gone backwards a little as I've stolen the turbo off it to go onto my Corolla (which is coping a complete drivetrain revamp hence this thing not being touched) but that just gives me an excuse to put a genuine Garrett on I guess lol Was looking at Jet R31's VL Berlina thread again and after seeing we had the same idea for a shifter top I thought I'd better get it done while I had a day at home since it would be a quick job I have already painted the shifter black a while ago... I finally got to putting the standard handle on and fitting it into the car, will have to remove again later as I want to try to use the original "PWR" overdrive button for a transbrake button, Apart from that, only thing I've really done is bought a few bits (Turbo shaft and Transbrake valve body) for the inevitable Powerglide conversion one day, and some Bosch 2200 injectors, Had this "Turbo" badge sitting about for a while, as per my last sleeper VL I built, It looked dead stock with the only give away being a 3" exhaust tip, bottom of a black painted FMIC poking it's head out and the "Turbo'" badge on the dash, Figured I may as well do it on this one as well, I do like the subtle giveaway's Bit of 3M tape on the back and fitted.... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Looking good! cheers darren

Awesomeness...great progress..

Forgot about this thread you mad *******dd! Absolutely love the seat covers and I agree you gotta roll turbo badge

Sooooo, Been busy as hell with all the other cars and as usual, this poor bloody thing gets kicked to the back corner, But, I've actually almost done something with it lol, I actually dragged it OUT of the garage.... Hosed the layer of dust off it.... It even looks nice again ha ha Then put it back in the shed... I bought a thing.... Also bought a stud kit for the caps First cap machined to suit Both done and studs fitted Hat fitted.... So the diff is just a standard VLT 28 spline with a mini spool, Hoping to actually see some good power from this car so I had the diff reco'd as well, plus added the T/A Performance hat and studs in hope it would last long enough till I can get some billet axles etc, I'm told there needs to be a corner shaved off these hats for the panhard rod, but will cross that when I come to it I guess I've sent the diff away to get new bushes put in the housing, will pick it up early next week, Put the car on stands to remove the original diff while I'm waiting to get it One very original diff etc.... Decided after all this time of the rear muffler hanging in there as I had plans to keep it I've decided to ditch it in fear of defects so will run a big exhaust the whole way through Original diff out, will actually go towards a couple of other cars, gears are going in another members Calais and the housing is off to replace a VS diff in a tough VH Original beyond words, these shocks have been there since 1986, still has the original GM stamped Monroe shocks for gods sake Stock pump etc down the the GM stamped clamps.. Fuel tank out for clean out etc, so much crap sitting on it Slowly stripping it all out so I can clean it all up and splash some fresh body deadner in there Pile of factory gear removed, all original parts, springs, shocks, link pins etc will be replaced with new items I unpicked all the fuel lines and rear brake line as the fuel lines will be run up the other side of the car, I'll pick out the brake line and put it back I once I've got it ready for assembly again Compressor sh!t itself on me whilst trying to clean under the car, hooked up the mobile diesel one ha ha So at this point it's all stripped and cleaned, ready to spray some deadner under it, hopefully I'll have time tomorrow arvo for that, if not I'll get it sorted on Sunday and I can the start putting it back together, I think I spent an hour shoving the air line in its orifices and every hole and join I could see to blow out 30 years worth of dust and dirt, my entire garage and rest of the car is covered in the same amount of dust I just hosed off the bloody thing ha ha ---------- Post added 06-07-17 at 15:51 ---------- So my plan of late is to try and do something everyday that's possible, I obviously cant do something everyday but I will when I can, I need to get this thing done, Really sick of looking at it doing nothing, I managed to get an early day today so I got a couple of hours spare, Didn't get a great deal done, but I suppose it doesn't matter if I do 2 minutes or 2 hours, as long as I get something done, I sprayed a bit of body deadner around today, didn't go all out for a show car finish, the car will have the wheels driven off it, so making it all pretty wont last 5 mins Got the wheel arches done and a bit under the car where the factory stuff is I unclipped the rear brake line from the barstard fuel lines and got that back in the original spot Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Dragged out the replacement upper control arms.... New bush kit Big difference from the older ones in size I didn't think the bushes were to bad and almost wasn't going to replace them but decided I best, good thing, looks like nothing from the out side till I pulled it out New bushes fitted and ready to install.. Massive difference between the stock items and these In.... Also, New RDA handbrake shoes have arrived, will work on getting that all together next week when I have the diff back Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Mint, Interested to see how much u have to grind off the TA cover my diffs getting shortened now and I will be it too,

So not a lot done but something I guess, which all helps, least that's what I'm going to tell myself to make me feel better, Gave the fuel tank a clean on the outside to remove 30 years of dirt, Didn't clean up too well but it is what it is... It appears the tank still had what I can only assume was once fuel in it.... Removed the fuel pump hanger to not only modify the line but to obviously upgrade the pump, all is not well here O.o So its covered in some pretty nasty sh!t, The rubber line has turned to moosh, as it does with fuel that's a few years old, Not a great deal left of the pump..... So the whole inside of the tank is pretty much the same as the hanger, I've sent the tank off to my cousins, who deals in chemicals and cleaning big sh!t, he is dropping he whole tank in an acidic mix, I was worried about the plastic swirl pot looking thing but he says it should be fine, so here's hoping so, if not, I'll hunt up a new tank, I'll clean the hanger in hopes the sender part doesn't sh!t itself, Panhard rod painted black because its stock Ocifer... Also picked up the diff and lower control arms with new bushes late this arvo, if I get home in time tomorrow I'll get it back in the car Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Again not much but something is better yadda yadda... Got the diff in this arvo, sorry for sh!t night phone pics, Still have to figure out the best way to have shocks adjusted but apart from that it pretty well in there, Panhard rod seems to clear, although is close, Haven't yet jacked it up to see it at ride height but think it might clear, Mocked it in with half an old bush while awaiting the new ones to arrive lol, will prob nick the corner off anyway Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Didn't achieve as much as I hoped today, Ended up having to pull the left LCA back out as the plate was fouling on the spring, Unsure why, they can only fit on one spot due to the cut out for the handbrake cable bracket Anyway, had to take a good 10mm out to clear the spring, think I took about 15mm of it all up, Can see the "cut" mark on the spring paint where it was fouling, After looking at the pics up there ^ of the LCA's I can see just how far back the plate is. On a positive note, My braided rear brake lines and Panhard rod bushes arrived today Got the diff sorted finally and the Panhard rod clears fine, jacked it up and down etc, clears everywhere, will do. Found my disc handbrake cable and threw that in.. Have been carting this cable around for longer than I've owned this car, been saving it for the eventual build lol, funny, came out of the last quick VL I had, Ironically the handbrake never worked ha ha Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Got a close-up of panhard going past the diff cover? What brand is your panhard rod?

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve [View Post] Got a close-up of panhard going past the diff cover? What brand is your panhard rod? Bit of a **** pic but there is about a 15mm gap at the lowest point (diff hanging) doesn't get any closer with weight of the car on it Some original photos have not been recovered yet.